Clear Skies
by Novel-Idea
First published
Moondancer has a plan to get away from it all. Minuette has a similar plan, only hers just involves joining Moondancer on her airship and hunting for a fabled lost treasure. Moondancer has a few problems with Minuette's plan.
Moondancer has a plan. A plan to get away from it all. Minuette has a similar plan. Hers just involves joining Moondancer on her airship and having them hunt for the fabled lost treasure of the Cloudshark.
Moondancer has a few problems with Minuette's plan.
Historian’s Note:
Clear Skies is set a few years after the ascension of Twilight Sparkle to the throne of Canterlot.
Cast: Moon Dancer & Minuette
Co-Starring: Even Keel, "Snappy Comeback," Whispering Trinket & Easy Wing
Guest Starring: Torque Wrench, Shining Armor & Princess Cadance
Covert Art: Little-Tweenframes
Cover Text & Section Break Design: Novel Idea/Amber Spark
Moon Dancer Cutie Mark: AllyCatBlu
Beta Reader & Editor Credits
Beltorn: Commenter-at-Large on FimFiction
JayMan155: Artist & Author Extraordiane!
Carabas: Author I Totally Didn't Fangirl Over
Word Count: 57,000 (To Date)
Version: 4.3B
The Wandering Blossom
As I stared at the dock ticket, I started to wonder if, despite everything my therapist had said, I was actually crazy. After all, normal ponies didn’t usually do this sort of thing.
Then again, considering my life up to this point, I severely doubted I would ever be considered ‘normal.’
After so many years of seclusion in the libraries of Canterlot reading about wonders near and far, it was—apparently—long past time for me to go out and experience some of those wonders.
At least, that’s what Mended Light had said. And I guess there’s not much point in seeing a therapist if you’re not going to listen to them. Supposedly.
Like it or not, Mended usually could read me like a book. We both knew there was more to her recommendation than simply ‘seeing the world,’ but she was kind enough not to say it out loud. After all, it didn’t need to be said.
Since the so-called ‘Succession', Canterlot had become more and more awkward for me. It hadn’t started that way. In fact, it had been great. But now, everything past the coronation was a blur. It had gotten especially bad afterward when old friends had tried to reconnect.
That had been something I couldn’t handle. Not even a little.
So, with the blessing of Mended, I had set my sights on new horizons. Maybe I overshot a little.
That’s how I ended up in Vanhoover’s Skydocks looking for Slip 43, sure this was a bad idea and that I should have known better.
“I’m crazy. I’m actually certifiably crazy,” I muttered as I held the docking ticket aloft in my pink magic. All sorts of little details and contractual notes were written in print so fine a griffon couldn’t read them from two inches away. “That’s the only reason I’m doing this.”
The hustle and bustle of activity all around me was starting to get on my nerves. I adjusted my glasses for the ten billionth time after some idiot bumped me. Ponies, griffons, yaks, and even a few minotaurs were wandering around, chattering away, carrying on, and ignoring the fact that other creatures—namely me—needed to get places. That, and they were all in my way.
Above the yammering crowd were dozens of moored airships. Most of the ones above us were large passenger liners, casting deep shadows over the Skydocks. There was one ship that looked vaguely similar to a griffon war-frigate from my studies of aerial combat, but most griffon ships looked like they were about to start a war. Probably just a cultural thing. The griffons I’d met weren’t like their ships. They were friendly enough. At least, they were when they weren’t crushed into a throng of milling creatures. I mean, they had wings, didn’t they? Why couldn’t they all take to the sky and leave us some walking space?
“Excuse me,” muttered a griffon as he shouldered past me, proving my point.
At least the yak in full ceremonial garb nodded gruffly at me before following him. It was something, at least.
I sighed, shifted my saddlebags, and peered around me, but still couldn’t spot any sign of Slip 43. This is what I got for trying to leave on a Friday afternoon. I really should have known better.
I was studying my ticket again when, instead of somepony running into me, I ran into them.
“Oof!” squawked the distinctive voice of a mare. “Can’t you watch where you’re—?”
I blinked a few times and looked down at my hooves. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. More specifically, I couldn’t believe who I was seeing.
“Minuette?” I blurted out the name as a half-question, half-demand. “What in Equestria are you doing here?”
The tall, perky blue unicorn popped back up with her trademark smile aimed squarely at me.
“Hi there, Moony!” she cried. She looked ready to throw herself at me—maybe for a hug—but stopped herself at the last moment. Good thing, too. I’d had enough physical contact just looking for my ship. “You should watch where you’re going, especially somewhere as busy as this!”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I demanded, my eyes narrowing. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s a free country!” Minuette said, flicking her navy and white mane at me with a playful little smirk. “Pretty sure I can go wherever I want!”
My eyes narrowed to slits as my suspicions grew by the second. I’d left a lot behind when I’d suddenly departed Canterlot, and I wouldn’t put a few ponies—including the one in front of me—past sending somepony to check up on me. It was their way of showing they cared, in a nosy, annoying way.
“Yowza!” Minuette laughed, her smile never breaking. “Don’t look at me like that, Moony! Look, if it’s so important to you, I was here on a special assignment for the Clockmaker’s Guild. It’s all done now, so I’m trying to find a ride home.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying it’s a complete coincidence that I happen to run into an old friend—”
“Current friend!” Minuette interrupted in that perky little voice of hers.
I let it go by without argument. “—from Canterlot in the middle of the Vanhoover Skydocks? On a Friday afternoon? In all of this?”
I waved my hooves manically at the throng moving around us. Only now did I realize I was doing the exact same thing I’d been quietly cursing creatures for just a minute ago.
“Pretty much,” Minuette said with an easy shrug. “You act like somepony’s out to get you, Moony.”
Gee, I wonder why that was. Maybe because this wasn’t the first time random friends had appeared in my life out of the blue?
I sighed and rubbed my temple. Minuette was not the kind of pony I wanted to be spending time with. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still a fantastic friend. But I needed serenity and tranquility. Minuette didn’t possess much in the way of either of those attributes. She was bubbling with excitement. Again, not bad, just not needed at present. Particularly now.
Anyway, I had a date with a ship. A ship I spent a great deal of bits on. Far too many bits.
“Well, it was nice seeing you again,” I replied with a forced smile. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to find a particular ship before the Dockmaster locks her up for the afternoon.”
Okay, granted, that wasn’t really going to happen, but it sounded plausible enough, right?
Apparently, it did. So much so that Minuette fell into step beside me as I tried to extricate myself from the situation. I mentally groaned but tried to keep the smile on my face. I’m fairly sure it stayed, but it knew it wasn’t really welcome.
“Where are you off to?” Minuette asked, adjusting her saddlebags. They jingled a little. I could hear them even over the racket of the docks. “Anyplace exciting?”
“Hopefully not,” I muttered. “If things go my way, it’ll be quiet, serene, and simple. You’d probably find it boring.”
“You’re making it sound like I have no idea how to enjoy serenity.”
“Minuette, you’re best friends with Pinkie Pie, the only pony in existence to be able to both handle and wield Discord’s chaos magic—albeit only for a short time. That says a lot about a pony.”
“Me or Pinkie?”
“Both.”
Minuette seemed to consider this while she remained at my side as we navigated the mass of creatures. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”
“See? Serenity and chaos don’t exactly go together!”
I shook my head and spotted Slip 42. I almost squealed in delight. Almost. I did hurry forward though. Fast enough that Minuette had a hard time keeping up. However, I wasn’t able to shake her. She’d always been the one to put the most effort into me back in the old days.
Maybe I was being unfair.
But I needed this! Badly! This was exactly what had been recommended to me and the more time I’d spent thinking about this, the more appealing the idea had become. I’d spent a good bit of my savings learning how to do what I was about to do. I’d spent most of the rest on something that would actually let me do it!
I had enough left over for supplies and a little extra in case the worst should happen. Always a good idea to hold some back. Old lessons from my uncle. He probably would have liked this idea.
Of course, that didn’t count for the bits still owed.
I shook my head. Those were thoughts I didn’t need rattling around my brain right now.
I burst out of the crowd into the loading area for Slip 42, its berth empty. I looked to the right just as Minuette caught up with me. And that’s when my breath caught and I felt the first real smile since the coronation bloom on my face.
Minuette followed my gaze and let out a low whistle. “Is that…”
“Mine,” I said with a breathy sigh. “All mine.”
My annoyance at Minuette all but forgotten I slid around the milling crowds of the Skydocks as I approached Slip 43.
There, moored with nothing but three lines of rope, lay my secret dream. Her hull was a rich golden brown with dark purple accents leading up to the prow. Three long portholes along the starboard side gave a glimpse into the interior. I could actually see what would be my bed and couldn’t help but smile when I saw the star-patterned sheets. Was there nothing that stallion couldn’t acquire? Then, my eyes drifted to the sturdy thundersteel railing lining the main deck. The deck itself ran smooth and flat until it reached twin pilot seats on the upper section of the aft deck inside the wheelhouse. On either side of the hull, blue wings flared out from the aft section, almost like dragonfly wings. And above, attached to the bowsprit by a series of ironcords, hung the mainsail with a similar blue sheen.
I could feel the magic radiating off of her, both literally and figuratively.
“This… this is yours?” Minuette whispered.
Somehow I heard her over the bustle. I didn’t know how. I didn’t care.
“Yes,” I answered quietly as I gazed upon her smooth, sleek shape. She reminded me of a hummingbird a split-second before taking flight.
“Does… does she have a name?”
I stepped forward and gestured to the curve of the forward hull. There was a name etched there in the same cream color as my coat.
“Wandering Blossom,” Minuette breathed.
I glanced at Minuette briefly. Her bright blue eyes were even wider than normal. She stood stock-still, the wind over the Skydocks lightly ruffling her coat and mane. She seemed to be at a loss for words and at a loss for breath. Perfect.
I turned back to the beautiful creature and I spotted somepony stepping up from the lower deck. An older chocolate-coated unicorn in oil-stained overalls flung a rag over his back and threw a few tools into one of his saddlebags. I couldn’t help but smile. Despite my aggravations with the crowds, finding this place, and Minuette’s interruption, I would never take out my frustrations on Even Keel, the best airship engineer this side of Fillydelphia. And right now, my personal hero.
I quickly scampered up the gangplank and unlatched the gate with the unlocking spell. For a moment, Even Keel just stared at me, dumbfounded by my sudden appearance and even more sudden charge onto the Blossom’s deck. Then the wizened old unicorn, his mane a thick mass of brown, black and white like a s’more, grinned at me.
“About time you got here, missy!” Keel called as I scampered up to him.
I couldn’t stop myself. I practically tackled the old unicorn to the deck with a bear hug. He let out a grunt of pain as he collapsed and only then did I snap back to my senses.
“Oh Celestia!” I cried as I picked myself up, then used my magic to levitate him back up. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
“Been a long time since a filly as pretty as you threw me to the ground,” Keel said with a wink and a grin.
I flushed scarlet, ducking my head. “Okay, yes, I deserved that.”
He reached up and booped my nose. I scrunched up my face. I hated it when ponies did that.
“Good, then we’re even,” he said with a laugh.
After two and a half years of working together, I knew Keel’s sense of humor. I also knew his wife’s sense of humor. Well enough to know that if I breathed half of the quip he just threw at me… well, he’d probably be fleeing to Kludgetown in record time.
“So, what do you think of her, missy?” he asked with a smug little grin. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“You magnificent genius!” I squealed as I spun around, just taking in everything from the detail of my cutie mark on the main hatch to the lower deck to the winding patterns of crystal and iron weaving up the side of the wheelhouse. “She’s the second most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”
“And considering the things you’ve seen, filly, I take that as mighty praise indeed.”
“I can’t believe—“
“Moony?” Minuette called from behind me.
“And you brought a friend? Is that second bed I spent eight days installing actually gonna get some use?” Keel gasped, staring at me in utter shock. I could see the sparkle in his eyes and just what he was implying.
Namely about the second bed not being used.
I ignored Keel’s antics and waved Minuette aboard. It wasn’t like I was going to just leave her standing there on the gangplank. I still might not have the best social skills, but even I wasn’t that clueless.
Minuette carefully stepped onto the deck, as if she were expecting the Blossom to suddenly jerk out from under her.
“She’s not an airship type, eh?” Keel said, a note of disapproval in his voice.
“Apparently not,” I said to my own surprise. “Minuette, it’s safe, come on!”
“I… I’ve never been on one this small!” she said as she practically tiptoed across the deck. “Shouldn’t we be swaying in the wind or…”
Even Keel harrumphed and marched up the small stairway to the wheelhouse above. “Why, I never…”
Minuette’s eyes were still wide as she watched him stalk off. “W-What’d I say?”
I sighed but really couldn’t find it in myself to be mad at Minuette. It’s not like she knew. For pony’s sake, she wasn’t even supposed to be here. Still, I didn’t want to just kick her off—yet—and I definitely didn’t want Keel feeling offended.
“Even Keel is the premier engineer of Albatross-class engines and stabilizers,” I explained. I’d practically memorized all the different classes of engines, from the Monsoon-class used by the largest passenger liners to the Finch-class used by the airship equivalent of a kayak. “His specialty is ships that barely twitch even when going full speed through a thunderstorm. They don’t even jiggle in dock.”
“Oh… oh.” One of Minuette’s hooves flew to her mouth as she realized what she had just implied. “Mister Keel! I’m so sorry! I… I’m kinda clueless when it comes to airships!”
“You already made that abundantly clear, missy!” snapped the old stallion’s voice from above.
I rolled my eyes. “She said she was sorry, Keel!”
“Don’t make it—“
“What did you say to me three weeks ago?” I smirked.
Silence spread over the ship for a brief moment, until the roar of the Skydock crowd beat it back.
“Fine,” he huffed. “All is forgiven. Mistake of a newbie!”
“Thank you, sir!” Minuette called up to the still-hidden engineer.
A few clanks as he did something to the steering controls was his only answer.
“Don’t worry about him,” I said with a shake of the head. “He just likes giving ponies a hard time.”
“I do not!” Keel’s head popped out above us, squinting down at us with a single eye. His wispy little beard dangled in the light breeze. “I’m the warmest, cuddliest little pony you’ve ever met!”
“And what would Red Ribbon say about that?” I shot back at him, but I was grinning as I did it.
“That you’re too smart for your own good, Dancer.”
“No, that’s what you’d say. And you’re not the first pony to say that.” I smirked at him and adjusted my glasses.
The stallion grumbled and ducked his head back into the wheelhouse.
“I’ll be another twenty minutes and then you’ll have nothing but clear skies ahead!” he called, the cheer returning to his voice. “Why don’t you show the polite lady around your new toy, missy!”
I rolled my eyes again, but couldn’t keep the grin off my face. However, since I needed to get Minuette off my ship soon so I could cast off the moment Keel was done, I decided to take his advice. With a smile that was mostly genuine, I guided her away from the aft section of the ship and toward the prow.
“Moony, how… why… when…” Minuette sputtered before returning back to her original question. “How?”
I smiled and enjoyed the breeze through my bangs. “I wasn’t only studying during all those years, you know.”
Minuette frowned at me. “You mean back when—”
“Yeah, at the second party. Somepony seemed to think I only existed to study. And I wasn’t in the mood to correct you. I actually had two jobs. One as a Research Assistant First Class at Canterlot University and another as a part-time Vault Specialist at the Royal Canterlot Archives.”
Minuette stopped dead in her tracks so suddenly I kept going for a few feet before I turned to look at her. The other mare’s eyes bored into mine and her mouth gaped open.
“You were a… First Class and a Vault Specialist?” she squeaked. “Moondancer, those are like the most well-paid academic fields in the country! Ponies wait for decades to get into those roles. The Clockmaker’s Guild—”
“Usually ends up poaching the Vault Specialists, namely to find out if they know anything about ancient engineering designs,” I finished with a hint of smugness. “You once asked me what I was studying for. It was those jobs.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell us?” Minuette cried, waving her hooves in the air like she was trying to catch a hummingbird. “That’s fantastic!”
“First time? Because at that point, I didn’t think I should bother. After that…” I shrugged off the question and tried not to think of the implications. And the questions. And… other things. “Well, it just… didn’t seem important. You all just accepted that I had a job—I did have to make enough bits to afford a home in Canterlot even if I never actually cleaned up the place.”
“Still, you could have bought one of the castle spires with the amount of money you saved up!” Minuette cried.
“Why would I want that?” I said with a faint hint of a smirk as I stepped up to the railing and leaned out over the Blossom, taking in the sprawling city of Vanhoover far below. “I already have one of the best libraries around on this ship. I had every book I own shipped here three weeks ago. And now… I can finally see all the stuff I read about.”
Minuette joined me beside the rail, looking out at the same incredible view. The city went on for miles and miles with vast parks, greenbelts, lakes, and forests scattered throughout the place. Founded by earth pony traditionalists, Vanhoover was built around nature instead of through it. Mostly. It wasn’t like it was perfect, but I liked it here. A lot more than I’d expected to.
“So where are you off to?” Minuette asked, a hint of hesitation in her voice.
I eyed her, my suspicions returning, as I led her down the other side of the ship. We both ducked a little to get beneath the mainsail. I didn’t answer her question until we reached the main hatch leading to the lower deck of the Blossom. I opened it for Minuette and gestured for her to go first. She ducked her head and took the short set of steps down into the ship’s innards.
“I’m going to do a leisure cruise over the Equestrian Northwest,” I replied as I followed her, guiding her when needed. “Luna Bay, along the Frozen Peaks and maybe stopping by Whinnyapolis on the way to the Crystal Empire.”
Despite her being one of the best clock engineers in Equestria, Minuette stayed well clear of the various part-magical and part-mechanical pieces of Engineering that took up about a quarter of the lower aft of the Blossom. There had been another corridor we could have used that would have skipped all of it, but I did want to show off my beautiful toy. The wonderful part was I could name almost every component of engineering and while I didn’t necessarily know how to fix anything but the most basic of problems, I had an entire shelf of technical manuals dedicated to that particular issue.
“That seems like one of the loneliest journeys you could make,” she said as we moved into the next compartment. “Not to mention dangerous. The Frozen Peaks aren’t a safe place to be, especially as winter approaches.”
I smiled wanly at her concern and shook my head. Finally, we arrived in the living quarters, all furnished in creams and deep browns, with hints of purple for accents. My stateroom was to the right, with a thin folding door that could separate it from the rest of the living area. I pointed out the various amenities to Minuette, such as private facilities and a sink, not to mention the retractable sunroof I could use when the mood struck me—and nopony was standing right above me.
More distracting was the concerned look Minuette was giving me.
“I’ve done my research, Minuette,” I assured her. “I’ve studied the wild weather patterns. I’ve also taken trips up north above the Crystal Empire in special snow-slicer flitterships. I’ve taken the time to train for this, really.”
Minuette didn’t look convinced. Then again, I didn’t really have to convince her, did I?
Minuette shifted her interest to how my library had been completely transplanted here, taking up three walls in the stateroom. I hadn’t realized when I’d approved the designs just how tight it would be getting around in here with those bookcases in. Well, it was something I could live with. In fact, it would make the Blossom feel even more like home.
I pointed out the second cabin, about half the size as mine with a much more generic design. In truth, Even Keel had convinced me to install the second bedroom instead of making it a full study. I had planned on that conversion some time in the future since I hadn’t felt the expenditure had been worth it for now. After all, I had the rest of the lower deck as an informal study.
The shower and another set of facilities were located beside the second bedroom, then the deckplan opened up to envelop the entire width and breadth of the ship. There was a small dining area with four bolted-down cushions in the classical style, a tiny galley beside it complete with a stove, a coffee pot, and a refrigerated cabinet. There was even a pair of fold-out sleeper sofas on either side of a coffee table that could sink into the deck.
“Now, time for the big part…” I said with a smirk as I gestured for her to take one of two large easy-chairs that seemed to be looking out at nothing more than the interior keel of the prow. She did so, looking at me curiously, then I took the other. I’d never gotten used to sitting like this, but if this ended up looking like what I thought it would… it would be worth it.
I tapped a small reactive pad on the ceiling with my magic. Instantly, the Blossom’s internal magic came alive and the bulkheads before us seemed to simply dissolve away, leaving nothing but an unobstructed view of part of the massive Skyport’s lower levels while the rest of the view was dominated by the distant Unicorn Range with little but forests and the occasional road stretching between Vanhoover and the horizon.
“By Celestia’s mane…” Minuette whispered. “This is a variant of Shellshinger’s Sight, isn’t it?”
I grinned.
She frowned for a moment. “S-Shellsinger’s Sight! See! Stop smirking!”
I couldn’t help but giggle as I nodded. “A nightmare to install, but the results speak for themselves. The best part is, it’s powered by the ship’s own internal engine, an Albatross-9. Many of the portholes on the ship are actually simply Sight panels! So no structural loss and… it’s what makes the Wandering Blossom seaworthy as well. Well, lake- and river-worthy. The open sea would probably be a bit much for her. There are only three actual portholes, one in each bedroom, and then two more per side in the dining compartment.”
“Now you’re just showing off,” Minuette said with a laugh.
“Maybe a little,” I admitted with a faint blush. “It… well, I might make it sound easy, but making this happen, getting Even Keel himself to work on her, getting her done as quickly as I… wanted… all of it? It was a logistical nightmare. My aunt helped… a lot.”
The last few words were dragged out of me by some force I didn’t understand and didn’t like.
“Anyway!” I said before I could blurt out anything more awkward. “I think that’s the whole tour! Oh, those fins you saw on the sides? Stabilizers for the Albatross-9. And if you’re wondering about the sheen on the mainsail, it doubles as a standard wind sail and as a photo-magical generator, helping take the load off of the Albatross and cap off the batteries.”
I said all this as I was starting to move Minuette back toward the stern of the ship. She tried to get in a few words, but I continued to babble about the perfect harmony of technology—old and new—and magic that my beautiful ship harnessed. I ushered her down the guest’s corridor that didn’t go straight through the engine compartment and almost reached the door when Minuette suddenly flung up a shield right in front of the door, forcing me to grind to an immediate stop.
I’m not sure when I had switched to actual shoving, but one could claim some minor shoving had happened. Especially when she stopped. Especially when I didn’t notice the shield.
“Moony.”
“Why did you conjure a shield, Minuette?”
“Moony, this is getting a little silly, don’t you think?”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I cast a counterspell at the shield. Minuette’s shields never were particularly strong, so it was easy to shatter her field of magic. Minuette stumbled and I ‘helped’ her stumble back onto the main deck beneath the thick grey Vanhoover clouds.
However, that… may not have been the best decision I had made that day.
Minuette spun on her heels and summoned up enough magic to make her horn glow like a beacon in a stormy sky. Her eyes were narrowed. Her stance was familiar, one of the dozens of unicorn combat techniques I’d studied over the years. And she radiated annoyance. On the normally happy-go-lucky Minuette, it was more than a little unsettling.
“Don’t push me, Moondancer.” Minuette’s voice was cool and quiet, almost like an icy growl. “Literally. I don’t like being pushed. Even by my friends.”
“Minuette,” I groaned, rubbing my forehead. “Any minute now, Even Keel is going to give me the all-clear on the Blossom. As soon as the dockmaster clears me, I’ll be using every bit of thrust in that crystal core downstairs to get me away from these ponies and this city. It’s time to go for me. And that means that it’s time to go for you, too.”
“I’m not asking you to stay,” Minuette said as she looked up and her magic faded. “I’m asking if I can come with you.”
I gaped at her as Minuette dropped her combat stance and plopped down on the deck. She sat up and looked at me with a tiny, fragile smile. I’d known Minuette a long time. I’d only seen that smile a hoofful of times.
“Minuette?” I asked as concern tinged my voice. “What’s going on here?”
“Look, let’s just say you’re not the only pony who needs some serenity right now,” Minuette replied, her eyes looking everywhere but at me. “Things… aren’t great for me back in Canterlot at the moment.”
“But you’re the best clockmaker in Equestria!” I protested, pointing at the hourglass on her flank. “Everypony knows it! How could things be bad?”
“I didn’t say they were bad. I said they weren’t great.” Minuette stared at the deck, obviously unwilling to say any more in the way of details. “And… I wanna take at least a few days off before going back.”
“But…” I gestured to all the ships in the sky above and around us. I could see no less than thirty airships that were probably still taking on passengers. “Minuette, you’re one of the most personable ponies I know. You can make friends with nearly anypony. If you’re just looking for a vacation—”
“I need to do this, Moondancer,” Minuette replied, pawing at the deck and still not looking at me. “Yes, I could probably charter a ship to run around Equestria for a month or so. But… I’d be with a stranger. I can’t do this with a stranger. I’d rather do it with somepony I trust and somepony I know.”
“I…” I flushed, trying to figure out how to get out of this without looking like a total bitch. “Minuette, I do actually get where you’re coming from but—”
“What ya need in a situation like this is a bit more than a standard cruise, I think. Something that’ll give you a bit of a challenge!” said a voice from on high.
Both of us suddenly looked up to see Even Keel walking down the steps from the wheelhouse, a smirk on his lips and his horn glowing with golden light, though I couldn’t figure out what spell he was casting.
“Keel?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, don’t act like that was a private conversation. You were having it on deck! You know the rules, missy!” Keel shook a hoof at me as he approached.
“‘The only private conversations on an airship are in cabins and the wheelhouse,’” I quoted with a roll of my eyes. “Still didn’t answer my question.”
“You’re right. I didn’t.”
“Look, just because I don’t have a locked down schedule—”
He smirked and I realized my mistake.
He opened one of his saddlebags and flung out a sphere about the size of a pony’s hoof. Inside of it was some strange-looking golden crystal pointing in all six directions. Odd blue energy crackled around the crystal. He’d only ever described it to me, and only then in passing.
To my surprise, he floated it over to Minuette, who took it gingerly in her magic.
“Only use magic to hold her,” Keel said in a voice of something approaching reverence. “Use a hoof and too much pressure and you’ll fire her off. Ain’t something you wanna do in the middle of Vanhoover, I’ll tell you.”
“What is it?” I asked, approaching Minuette and the strange orb. I peered down. The crystal fragments were jagged and cracked in places. It looked old. At least five hundred years or so.
“Best I can figure,” Even Keel said, still smirking. “It’s a Waystone.”
That… that wasn’t possible. The thought went through my head before the words slipped out of my mouth.
“Waystones aren’t real,” I continued. “They’re just used in Daring Do adventure novels and fanfictions!”
Minuette was staring at it so intently it might as well hold the secrets of the universe.
“Minuette, come on, Keel’s just screwing around with us,” I sighed, rubbing my head. “Look, I can put you—”
“Excuse me?” In an instant, Keel was in my face and red as a beet. “You know me, missy! You know I ain’t prone to exaggeration! Look here, all my own research and such? Everything says that’s a Waystone. Even had some fancy-pants appraiser look at it up on Platinum Row in Canterlot a few years back. Can’t recall his name though…”
“Professor Earnest Eyes?” Minuette piped up, her voice back to the cheerful pep I was used to. “From Earnest Appraisals?”
Keel raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s the one. How’d you know?”
Minuette was now rotating the globe in her magic. She seemed to be doing an inspection spell, but it was the most delicate version of the spell I’d ever seen. “He teaches at Gifted Unicorns, at the graduate level. His courses in artificing are all required for membership in the Clockmaker’s Guild.”
I blinked. Hadn’t been ready for that one. Still, I wasn’t about to take this at face value. Even from Keel.
“And it’s charged?” I demanded, even though I could see the little arcs of blue lightning inside.
“Completely,” Keel replied, looking more smug than ever.
“Then why haven’t you gone after the waypoints?” I demanded, getting nose-to-nose with Keel. “I mean, if what you’re saying is true, then you have a magical treasure map right here! Depending on what it points to, you could be insanely rich right now!”
Keel laughed so hard a few stray tears leaked from his eyes. I just stared at the crazy old engineer, plopping down and crossing my hooves against my chest with a raised eyebrow while Minuette did… whatever.
“Missy, I already live in a four-story manor on the outskirts of Vanhoover, got a summer cottage at the foot of Canterlot mountain and an entire suite on call in the Fillydelphia Spearhead Tower. I’ve got myself three private airships, two yachts, and about two hundred job offers. Each of my fillies are strong, brilliant mares who each earned their own fortune in their fields, even knowing when I kick the bucket, they’ll be rich enough to never lift a hoof for the rest of their lives! I’ve made a fortune designing and building airships, be it for the dumb and rich or the smart and thrifty.”
It was probably the most I’d ever heard him say in one go. It was weird. I still just stared at him.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“That there was for payments rendered on the Meadowlark just after I bought the Foothill Cottage. Fine ship, even if her captain were crazier than a cave-full of batponies with a single mango to share. Decided, why not? Might be fun. Ain’t never gotten around to actually looking it up.”
“And you’re just… giving it to us?” I shouted, unable to believe any of this. “No demands, no ultimatums, no nothing?”
“What made you so suspicious, anyway?” Keel said, his eyebrows dancing. “Ain’t you ever heard of a thing called a gift?”
“Not when that gift could be worth a fortune!” I shot back.
Keel sighed, looking more disappointed than annoyed. “Look, missy. You want the truth? Since you opened this commission of yours, I’ve seen every sign of a mare trying to run away from something.”
“That’s not true!” I barked. “I had everything I needed back in Canterlot. This is just me fulfilling an old dream!”
“If that’s what you need to tell yourself to sleep at night, then I ain’t gonna take that away from you,” Keel replied, poking me in the chest. “We both know the truth of things. It ain’t a bad thing to want control of your life, missy. It’s a bad thing to demand it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, glowering at the old engineer.
It took everything I had not to start grinding my teeth. I already had a therapist. I didn’t need another.
“Well then, this young lady,” he said, pointing at the oddly quiet Minuette who was still looking into the depths of the supposed ‘Waystone.’ “She admitted it. Wants to spend some time away from things. Wants to do it with a friend. And take it from someone who’s sailed both sea and sky, having someone there by your side can be mighty helpful when the silence gets too big.”
I caught Minuette looking at me, but her eyes darted away a second later.
“I’m not going to win this one, am I?” I groaned. My ears went flat and I glared at the two ponies. “Seriously? First time in my life I take a real vacation and I—“
I stopped myself before I said any of the words rattling around in my head about Minuette. Yes, she was a friend, but she could also be annoying as all get out. Her constant sunny optimism must have been a direct result of being BFFs with the legendary—and terrifying—Pinkie Pie. Nothing could get her down! She was a goofball who I literally saw wear green slatted shades with a parrot and a palm tree on them when she was supposedly ‘spying on me.’
Seriously, how could anypony miss somepony in those horrible tourist-trap nightmares?
The last thing I wanted to deal with was the third Pinkie Pie—third because rumor was that Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich had been seen together an awful lot lately—on my time away from… well, my life.
“You’re sure I can’t convince you to take a long cruise home?” I asked, already knowing Minuette’s answer.
Minuette finally stopped her study of the ball and looked me square in the eyes. She tried to hide it, but I could see something there.
“If you ask, I’ll go,” Minuette replied quietly just as the sky overhead rumbled a little signifying one of Vanhoover’s trademark drizzles. “I can get my own ride back to Canterlot.”
She was still holding the ‘Waystone’ in her light blue magic, but she was looking at me.
The Minuette I knew had always been upbeat, cheerful, and looking ready to explode. This one looked… dim.
“Fine.”
Minuette’s eyes lit up like twin Hearth’s Warming trees. “Really?”
I sighed. “Sure, why not? It’s not like I have a strict itinerary anyway.”
Despite the fact that I could think of at least a dozen other reasons why not.
“Moony, you don’t know what this mean—”
“I’ll take you as far as Whinnyapolis,” I said with a raised hoof. “After that, you’ll need to chart your own course.”
My ultimatum didn’t even throw her off. She just nodded eagerly.
“What about this?” She lifted the ‘Waystone’ in her magic, looking hopeful.
I cast a sidelong glance at Keel, who just smirked. He was smirking too much today, but I didn’t have it in me to kill that little hope in Minuette’s eyes. So, I adjusted my glasses and caved.
“We’ll see. We’ll stow it in the lower deck for now.” I eyed Keel up and down again. “Then we’ll decide what to do with it when we’re underway. I’m not opposed to the idea. After all, it’ll take us even further into the wilderness and the less ponies the better, I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
“If it helps, I did at least do the first sounding of it,” Keel said, the smugness in his face and voice almost unbearable. Why had I hugged this stallion to the ground earlier? “Magic readouts pointed toward Whinnyapolis.”
“I think you’ve done more than enough to help.”
He looked around the Blossom. “Yup! I suppose I did.”
Minuette giggled.
I just facehoofed. Again.
Author's Notes:
This fun romantic comedy/adventure sadly got lost in the total insanity of 2020. While I have the entire first part written, I'm not entirely confident in publishing it yet. So, we're going to do something a little different. Chapter by chapter. I think I did something like that for Prerogative.
I'm glad to have a story back here. And seriously, Moonie and Minnie would just kill me if I didn't get their story out. Even worse, Amber and Marina would just be so disappointed. And you don't disappoint someone like Marina.
Now that you've finished this chapter, go check out Highway Blossoms while you wait for the next one!
If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!
Castoff
Twenty minutes later, the smug engineer had departed into the still-teeming throng of the Vanhoover Skydocks. Despite my annoyance at him, I’d still hugged him again and promised that the next payment for the deposit would be in the mail as soon as I made Whinnyapolis. Despite his little gift, I needed this ship to be mine, or at least as ‘mine’ as I could afford it to be. If I didn’t get the Wandering Blossom under my name, it would hang over me. I just needed to be free, if only for a little while.
However, that wasn’t meant to be, because now I had a stowaway. One I’d willingly let on board, to make matters worse. So yes, it stretched the definition of stowaway, but I felt it was appropriate.
I found Minuette still studying the ‘Waystone’ on the stern of the ship, a view dominated by the sprawling city of Vanhoover and the great blue expanse of the North Luna Ocean stretching out to the horizon beyond. Of course, with the rain that had started a few minutes ago, it was difficult to see much, but the Skydock’s pegasi-operated rain shield was doing its job nicely, protecting the Skydocks and the smaller vessels in their slips from the drizzle. Still, it was a beautiful sight.
Minuette didn’t seem to notice me at first. She just kept turning the ‘Waystone’ around and around in her magic like it was a particularly interesting Hearth’s Warming ornament. I watched for a short time. The way the blue lightning arced inside of it was rather hypnotizing, but not to this level of fascination.
“Okay, what’s the deal?” I demanded, my eyebrow raised at her as I rewrapped my mane into a tight bun. Topknots would have to wait until our first stop. “Why are you so locked into that thing?”
Minuette jumped and nearly dropped the ‘Waystone.’ She blushed and glanced back at me, biting her lip. “You startled me.”
“Sorry,” I replied flatly, rolling my eyes. “Now, what’s the deal?”
Minuette’s eyes fell back on the orb. “Well… I mean, it just… it’s… like a puzzle right?”
I thought about the basic properties of an actual Waystone artifact. “Yes, more or less.”
“I like puzzles. And… I like the idea of a little adventure.”
“Minuette, I didn’t get this ship for an adventure. I got this ship to escape the world. Not to go on some silly treasure hunt. And I’d like to point out that despite Keel’s words, I really doubt that thing’s real.”
“I’m not saying you have to go on a treasure hunt!” she protested as she stood up and floated the orb next to her. “But wouldn’t it be awesome if it was real? And if you could?”
I shrugged. Despite my words earlier, I honestly hadn’t given it much thought. These kinds of things cropped up all the time in the Stack Vaults of the RCA. Some ancient artifact that supposedly holds secrets from the past or long lost treasures from forgotten kingdoms. They usually just held recipes for fruitbread. Like, an absurd amount of ancient cultures were obsessed with fruitbread. If this was a real Waystone, it probably just led to more fruitbread.
“Come on, Moony,” she begged. “Just consider the possibility?”
Her eyes got huge in a way I’d almost forgotten. Which wasn’t fair. At all.
I facehoofed again and shook my head. “I’ll consider it. Okay? That’s all I’m promising. I’ve already made some pretty big changes just by taking you on, Minuette!”
The last few words came out harsher than I intended and Minuette recoiled a little.
I took a deep breath. Smooth, Moondancer. Real smooth.
“Look, I’m sorry,” I said, forcing my voice to be even. “I just… don’t do well with unexpected changes to plans I’ve had in place for years. Even if they weren’t… firm plans. They were at least solo plans. Anyway, I said you can come as far as Whinnyapolis, and I meant it. Just… remember why I’m taking this trip? Okay?”
Minuette nodded, looking somewhat mollified.
“Okay… uh… you’ll need to stash that before we leave the docks. There’s a safe on one of the bookshelves near the sofa. Can you find it? I need to get her ready for departure.”
“I can probably manage that,” Minuette said with a smile. At least it was closer to her normal smile. Seeing her without her trademark grin was eerie. “Back in a jiffy.”
With that, she scampered below and for the first time, I was on the deck of the Wandering Blossom alone. It felt good. A fresh wind from the sea was coming in. It smelled of the unknown and of finally being able to chart my own course. I took the moment to walk the length of the ship.
The Wandering Blossom was one of the bigger classes of personal airships, based on the Bright Bow 7S Design. A great deal of that original design remained after Even Keel’s personal touch, but there was no doubt it was still mine. My new home was a full seventy feet in length from bow to stern and I made sure to walk every foot of her. She was beautiful in a way I’d never seen before. The moment I stepped hoof on her deck, I’d felt at home. Like we’d been together for years.
I ran a hoof along the railings and smiled to myself. “It’s going to be hard to be anywhere else…”
“What’s that, Moony?”
My trance broke and I spun to see Minuette there, her full-powered smile back on her face. For some odd reason, that made me feel better. Something about seeing Minuette as down or even outright sad just seemed… well, wrong.
In reality, I didn’t have a clue what it would be like to have her on board Wandering Blossom’s maiden voyage. Who knows? It might actually be fun. Operative word here being ‘might.’
“Moony?”
“Nothing, sorry,” I said. She smiled a little wider in response and I ignored her. “Okay, so, before we get underway, I need to know something, Minuette.”
She cocked her head to the side. “What’s that?”
I suspected I knew the answer, but I had to give her the benefit of a doubt. “Do you know anything about airship sailing?”
Minuette flushed slightly, her ears going back. “Um… does sailing those cute little model boats count?”
I blinked and considered it. “Only… a little.”
“Then… only a little?” Minuette said though she sounded hopeful it might be enough.
“Yeah, I was pretty sure that was going to be the answer.” I sighed.
I’d spent the last year taking courses, including clocking in over fifty hours of hooves-on airsailing out of Canterlot. I’d even taken a seven-day crash course in nautical sailing out of Baltimare last summer. And the year before, I’d been reading everything I could get my hooves on about engines, knots, wind patterns, and crystal cores.
I knew I was ready. There was no doubt in my mind.
Minuette though? Not so much. So, I could either have her as a full passenger where she did nothing, or teach her a few things and get some help. Maybe.
“I’m really good at picking up anything to do with engineering, especially fine mechanics,” Minuette offered, her ears perking up. “But when it comes to the rest…”
I lifted a hoof to quiet her down. “Okay, let’s… worry about that later. But right now, you need to agree to one thing, Minuette. If you don’t, you need to leave my ship.”
“What?” Minuette frowned.
I really wish she would stop frowning.
“If I tell you to do something on this ship, by Celestia, you need to do it.” I walked up to her and got right in her face. I narrowed my eyes. I tried to make my face as stiff as granite. She had to get this one. “Especially if things are getting rough, you understand?”
“Oh, is that all?” Minuette sat down and popped off a perfect little salute. “Aye-aye, Captain Moony!”
I blinked a few times. So much for my stoic command face.
“Second, don’t call me Captain Moony,” I grumbled.
“Aww.”
“Third, stop pouting!” I shouted.
Her smirk was all the answer I got for that one. So much for rule three. And I somehow doubted I could get her to follow rule two, either. Ugh.
“Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” I announced, ignoring her smirk. “Minuette, there are three ropes set into seals on the deck on the bow. Release the seals by putting your hoof down on each seal and pushing down hard, then just say the name of the ship and the word ‘unmoor.’ They should automatically spring back into the Skydocks.”
“Um… which way is the bow?” Minuette asked, rubbing her head and looking embarrassed.
I pointed at the front of the ship with a sigh.
“Got it!” She immediately scampered off.
I shook my head and turned around, heading for the wheelhouse standing tall above the deck of the Wandering Blossom. I climbed the starboard stairwell and stepped up into a small word of dials, yokes, levers, and throttles.
Both of the pilot seats in the wheelhouse could control the ship and there was enough space behind the chairs for three ponies to stand side-by-side comfortably. My second favorite part of the wheelhouse was the automated shutters that could lock down the aft section—currently open—and protect ponies from the elements. It even had a Spellsinger’s Sight charm to let me see through the slats!
Facing forward, however, was even more exciting, because I’d purchased a brand new contraption that I couldn’t wait to try out.
The forward-facing view of the wheelhouse did have a slatted curtain with a Spellsinger’s Sight built-in. But it also had a translucent shield generator built into the bottom of the wheelhouse’s structure. With that, I could bring up the equivalent of a magical window at any time. I could even superimpose the Spellsinger’s Sight over that and remove the sight of the mainsail from my view of the horizon!
After making sure Minuette was looking away, I squealed a little and did a little dance in the wheelhouse, then quickly jumped into the starboard pilot’s chair. I took a deep breath and triggered the crystal core with a flick of a switch.
And just like that, the Wandering Blossom purred to life. The hum of its rear turbines barely sent a rumble through the ship’s structure. The mainsail gleamed as it began to absorb what little sunlight slipped through the stormclouds above, while the jib sail just fluttered in the wind, as if eager to send us off.
I saw Minuette release the last of the lines mooring us to the Skydocks and grinned. I couldn’t help myself. I reached up and turned a dial, adjusting the onboard transmitter. This was another splurge, but a magical radio just seemed too convenient not to go for. I lit up my horn and cast the necessary spell. Somewhere in the Skydocks Air Traffic Control Tower to starboard, another unicorn would be getting my hail.
“Vanhoover Skydocks ATC,” replied a somewhat-overworked sounding pony over a small speaker above my head. “Please stand by.”
The speaker gave a little hiss while Minuette climbed up into the wheelhouse. She looked about ready to say something, but I shook my head and pointed at the other seat. Then I quietly disabled the port-side steering controls, just in case. She looked around curiously while I waited for the ATC to get back to me.
“Vanhoover Skydocks ATC,” said the other unicorn again. “ID, homeport?”
“This is Wandering Blossom, homeport Canterlot. Requesting departure clearance, ATC,” I announced, watching as a team of four pegasi led out an enormous pleasure yacht three times the size of the Blossom. According to the hull, its name was To Dream in Colour.
Talk about your pretentious names. Yeesh.
Meanwhile, Minuette let out a whistle at the thing.
“Blossom, ATC,” the pony replied with the sound of rustling paper. “Flight plan shows north to Twinkle Town, then northeast to Whinnyapolis, confirm?”
“ATC, Blossom,” I said, trying to sound professional and not so giddy I might start squealing like I really wanted to. “Flight plan confirmed.”
“Blossom, ATC. Be aware: reports of stray frozen north storms along projected flight path. Cloudsdale teams en route, but advise caution. Storms met along your path are wild, repeat wild.”
“ATC, Blossom. Wild storm warning acknowledged,” I replied. I wasn’t concerned. I handled a few storms during my training and read enough about them to probably dance through them. I ignored the worried look Minuette gave me and took another breath. “Thank you, ATC.”
“Blossom, ATC.” The unicorn on the other side must have had this ‘conversation’ with a dozen other ships today alone. “You are clear for departure. Wait for Sky Guide Red to wave you out.”
“ATC, Blossom,” I said. My hooves were positively shaking with anticipation. “Acknowledge Sky Guide Red.”
“Blossom, happy winds and clear skies,” the operator droned.
“ATC, calm winds and clear skies,” I replied, completing the old airship exchange. It had been one of the first things I’d learned when I first came up with this crazy scheme. And now… I was about to live out that scheme.
It was getting harder to contain the squeal.
“ATC out.”
The line went dead and I turned the radio into passive mode. Not a lot of ponies could use radios, even among unicorns. Even airships usually used semaphore towers or just a pony waving flags. But one never knew when one might get a warning. A seldom-used line of communication was better than no line of communication. At least, that’s what I’d read.
“So we’re ready?” Minuette chirped, clapping her hooves together from her seat.
I strapped down my seatbelt and Minuette did the same. “Yes, we are.”
Minuette began to bounce in her seat a little. I tried to hide my smile behind a hoof, but I couldn’t keep it hidden for long.
Within a few minutes, a pegasus in a red uniform flew up to the starboard side of the ship. A moment later, a second one flew up to the port side. Both of them looked at me and I nodded. They nodded in reply—I couldn’t tell if they were stallions or mares—and used glowing batons to wave us forward with a measured pace.
I swallowed hard and put my hoof on the throttle.
Minuette made a little squealing noise. I could have told her to stop, but I wanted to squee too, so I didn’t. I just smiled wider.
I took one final deep breath and pushed the throttle to one quarter.
The Blossom immediately shuddered as the rear engines spun up and the ship began to slowly inch forward, away from the gangplank and the slip. For a second, I thought I saw Even Keel in the crowd again, chatting with some vaguely-familiar looking amber unicorn, but then they were gone. Then I forced my attention back to my center and peripherals.
The pegasi carefully guided us away from the Skydocks, having me alter course due north until the Skydocks were directly astern. It took a little over five minutes for us to clear the rest of the traffic, but thankfully, the staff and crew of the Vanhoover Skydocks knew their stuff. At no point did anypony get too close or things get dicey. I kept an even speed at one-quarter until we cleared Skydocks’s central airspace. With that, the starboard pegasus gave me a jaunty little salute and they both darted back toward the Vanhoover Skydocks.
“Okay, that was awesome!” Minuette squealed peering around at the view far beneath us.
“That?” I laughed. “That was nothing. That was just getting clear. This is where it actually gets fun.”
“There was a time you didn’t even know the meaning of the word,” Minuette pointed out with a cheeky little smirk. “They grow up so fast.”
“I can still turn this thing around!” I threatened, but I was smiling as I did it.
“How about you show me the fun part instead?” Minuette batted her eyelashes at me.
I snickered. “Does that ever work?”
“It worked once on Lemon Hearts. I think.”
I rolled my eyes… then I closed them. For just a moment, I just sat there, buckled into my seat like I was a part of the Blossom herself. I could feel her engines, her crystal core, the mainsail’s magical energy, the stabilizing fins to her sides, every bolt, every rivet, every plank of wood, and every shard of glass. This ship wasn’t just my new home for now. This ship was part of me. And I was a part of her. I had spent so long working with Even Keel to make her perfect… and she was. She was everything I wanted and more.
And maybe, that would finally be enough.
A wide, broad smile stretched over my face as I opened my eyes again to see Minuette looking at me curiously.
“You okay, Moony?”
“Better than ever.”
I adjusted our course to send us due north. We would pass over the tail end of Vanhoover and then head into the dense farmlands outside the city that lead right into the expansive northern forests and verdant green fields beyond. Two days with nothing but forests beneath us and ocean beside us, the next stop would be the small spot on the map known as Twinkle Town. Then we’d head inland for Whinnyapolis.
But all that could wait.
It was time for something much more exciting. Something that even I couldn’t be dour about even if I wanted to.
“You’re buckled in, right?”
“Uh… yeah?”
“Good.”
I flipped four switches on the control console with my magic. In an instant, the mainsail and the jib sail collapsed as magnetic charms cinched them tight. I flipped another switch and sent a surge of energy into the Blossom’s stabilizers. Just as rain began to patter on the deck in earnest, I triggered the shield spell. It grew like a wave of light blue magic across our field of vision. Minuette gasped as rain streaked down the magic field, powered by the Blossom herself. Now, we could see everything before us. The North Luna Ocean to port, the end of the deep forested mountains of the Unicorn Range to starboard. And before us… nothing but beautiful, gray stormclouds far above our heads.
“This ship is beautiful, Moony,” she whispered, almost as if she were praying. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Just wait and see what she can do,” I said smugly. “Hold onto something.”
A few more switches, a dial or two, then, with one hoof on the steering yoke and the other on the throttle, I powered up her main turbines. First, I moved her from one-quarter to one-half. The purr turned into a soft rumble as Minuette looked at me with wide eyes. Water was streaking on the shield spell. I reached up and pulled the lever to close the rear slatted curtain and activate the Sight spell. Minuette glanced behind us to watch, but I stayed focused on the task at hand.
It was a well-known fact that the Storm King’s Invasion of Canterlot some years back had advanced Equestrian airship technology considerably. A great deal of that was primarily used by the Royal Guard, but some had been allowed to go into the commercial sector. And this was the result.
With what might have been a manic grin, I shoved the throttle past the three-quarters mark and slammed into all-ahead-full.
The Wandering Blossom stopped wandering. Instead, she rocketed. The turbines went into a dull roar that rattled the entire ship from stem to stern. Wind whipped by us as we ripped over the last remnants of Vanhoover and streaked due north. We shot over farmlands for all of twenty seconds before we were soaring over the thick tangled North Shore forest that would stretch all the way to the icy foothills of the Frozen North.
“Moony!” Minuette cried as she clutched her hoof-rests. “Is this a good idea?”
“Part of a maiden voyage is seeing what she can do!” I laughed as I pushed the yoke down a little to drop some altitude.
“Moony, what are you doing?” Minuette all but screamed.
“Enjoying myself!” I cried as I eyed the altimeter as we cruised down toward the treetops.
“Moony!” Minuette cried as she practically crawled into a little ball. “This isn’t funny!”
I couldn’t stop laughing. My airspeed indicator showed that we were just shy of seventy knots. Reckless? Maybe? But I had every faith in the Blossom. Even if this was our first time together, I knew her like she knew me.
Minuette squeaked as we skimmed the very top of the vast forest. I adjusted the yoke and started to sashay Blossom across the green and pointy landscape beneath us. Nothing crazy, just enough to have some fun.
It didn’t stop Minuette from cowering like a terrified filly in her seat.
I let out a long, low sigh and throttled back to one half, then picked up altitude until we were at least a thousand feet above sea level.
“Minuette?” I called as I leveled the Blossom out.
“Go away.”
“Minuette…” I called, glancing over at her. She was still curled up.
“Minuette is not available! Go away and try again later!” she muttered. “Preferably when you’re not being mean!”
“If you’ll look out the window, you’ll see I’m not being ‘mean’ anymore.” I rolled my eyes.
Teasing her was going to be fun, but I’d probably have to rein it in a little. It would be a nice change of pace to be the teaser instead of the teasee, for once.
Minuette eventually came out of her self-imposed cocoon and peeked out through the forward screen. Only then did she blink a few times and take a deep breath.
“Okay, this… this I can handle.”
“I never expected you to be the one who couldn’t handle something as easy as skimming some treetops,” I giggled.
“I never expected that doing something like that would be your first act behind the wheel of this thing!” Minuette shot back.
“Minuette, I’ve been training for this for two years.” I rolled my eyes again. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
“Then for the next day, can we not do any crazy maneuvers?” Minuette said, her voice still a little bit shaky.
“Twelve hours,” I replied as I checked the clock on the wall. “I can give you that.”
“Why twelve hours?” she asked, still crouched and watching me with narrowed eyes and flattened ears.
“There’s a mountain pass I’ll need to cut through to make it out of the Greater Vanhoover Basin.”
“Can’t you just climb over it?” Minuette whined.
I shrugged as I adjusted the ship’s yaw a little. “I could, but I’ve been looking forward to getting through that pass for over a year.”
Minuette thought about it, then sat up straight and crossed her forehooves over her chest. “Fine.”
“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to come along,” I pointed out. “So no pouting.”
“I’ll pout if I want to!” Minuette snapped back, then stuck her tongue out at me.
“What are you, twelve?”
She just pouted some more.
Author's Notes:
You can probably tell I did a bunch of research into both airships and nautical ships for this story. In case you're wondering, 'port' is left of the ship, 'starboard' is right. I get them mixed up all the time, but it's helpful to know! I actually looked up how modern yachts worked, including engines, power systems and more. It was pretty fun, actually.
The other huge influence for this story is "The Aeronaut's Windlass" by Jim Butcher (yes, that Jim Butcher). If you love airships, I cannot recommend this story enough. The sheer cinematic nature of the airship battles in this book are beyond anything I've ever seen in anything else. In fact, if you know this book and you know anything like it, let me know in the comments, because I totally want to read it!
The big thing about the Blossom is that she doesn't have an envelope (the big balloon part). While those can be really cool, I wanted something more magi-tech-based, something that could maneuver a little better and a little faster. If you need a quick analogy for what the Blossom can do, think of a small, lightweight version of the Hellicarrers from the Avengers movies instead of the standard blimp-style airship, only with magical lift crystals instead of propellers. That's at least what comes to my mind! (Also, I love those Hellicarriers.)
The girls are off! I'll bet they'll have a nice, relaxing ride to their next stop with absolutely nothing unexpected happening!
If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!
Waystone
With the Blossom now heading at a safe half-ahead speed of forty knots toward the North Unicorn Pass and nothing in the sky save for rainclouds, I’d decided it was time to investigate the so-called ‘Waystone.’
Putting Blossom on autopilot—and reflecting that I probably did spend too much on this ship—we both hurried down the stairs. It was only then when I realized that I should have sprung for the stairwell covers. It was cold up here. At least it hadn’t been raining when we made our run. But the lower decks, heated by the energy of the crystal core, were nice and toasty. Both of us lost our shivers as we made our way to the forward lounge.
I cast the spell to give us the Spellsinger’s Sight on the inner bulkheads, which revealed the same beautiful, rainy northwestern Equestrian weather I’d come to love.
Then, finally, I asked Minuette to bring out Even Keel’s little ‘gift.’
I couldn’t wait to find out that it was a fake and we could move past the whole thing. Yes, I’m sure Minuette would be disappointed, but this way, it would make things simple for both of us. While I suppose there might be ruins or treasures to be found in the Equestrian Northwest, I wasn’t planning on being the one to find them. I would be quite happy just to sail over them and let other ponies go digging around in the dirt.
Minuette brought back the ‘Waystone’ as if it were some holy artifact of the Pre-Unification Tribes. It was a small miracle she didn’t trip over her own hooves considering how hard she was staring at it.
“Minuette, you’re going to go cross-eyed if you keep doing that,” I snickered.
Her eyes refocused on me and she gave me a snooty little smile. “Well, we can’t have that, because I think I’d be even cuter than you in glasses.”
I froze as if she’d slapped me with a club of ice. I felt my cheeks get hot and finally stammered, “W-what? What was that?”
“It’s called a comeback, Moony.” She smiled sweetly, her eyes sparkling with… something. “Now that we’ve both scored a point, why don’t we stop and you tell me about this thing?”
I narrowed my eyes and raised an eyebrow, while mentally delighted to be on some other topic. “You were gazing into that like it held the secrets to the universe and you don’t know what it is?”
Minuette sighed and floated the ball over to me. I snatched it from her magic, only to find myself surprised by the ‘Waystone’s’ weight.
“What I know mostly comes from Daring Do and the Maze of Kronnos. And since Daring Do is fiction…” Minuette trailed off, rubbing the back of her head and biting her lip.
“I can’t believe you got so worked up over something you learned about in a pulp fiction novel,” I sighed as I inspected the sparkling lines of light flowing across the six-pointed crystal in the center.
“Are you gonna make fun of me or are you going to educate me?” Minuette brushed by me and plopped onto one of the lounge chairs to stare out at the rain.
“What, I can’t do both?” I asked as I dropped into the other one.
Minuette shot me a dirty look. “Moony!”
I held my hooves up and laughed. “Okay, okay, I give.”
“So?” Minuette demanded. “Considering how much you’re talking about it not being real, you’ve got to know something about them.”
“Waystones, real Waystones,” I began—after adjusting my glasses of course, “are essentially a combination of magical journal and magical map. Some are more of one, some are more of the other.”
“What does this look like?” Minuette interjected. She’d already turned her seat to face me. She was even bouncing up and down. So much for being annoyed at me. “Which kind?”
Looking at her eager face, I couldn’t stop myself. I had to humor the silly filly. It’s not like I had anything to lose, right?
“This one…” I studied the way the outer casing of the orb seemed to shift around a little. “Is even between the two, probably. But there’s something else in the design that I can’t quite make out…”
I narrowed my eyes and adjusted my glasses, but the outer casing—at first appearing nothing more than a sheet of bronze—looked odd. Like there was a texture or pattern there.
Suddenly, a massive magnifying glass appeared before me. I yelped and scrambled back, only to see Minuette giggling softly—her horn alight.
“Guild spell?” I asked flatly.
“You’d be surprised by the things they teach us in the Guild!” Minuette said, her voice as sweet as sugar.
I used my own magic to adjust Minuette’s conjured magnifying glass so I could study the outer surface. To my surprise, there were markings on it. In Old Ponish, unless I missed my guess. But the words didn’t make any sense and they were split up by all sorts of strange geometric patterns that flowed over the surface like an aerial map of streets in a big city.
I found myself describing all of this to Minuette in detail, at least what I could make out of it. I examined every angle I could, floating the ‘Waystone’ to see every side. All the while, the six-pointed crystal remained perfectly stationary inside of its magical housing.
“So, come on… finish telling the story!” Minuette prodded me in the shoulder when I went quiet for too long. “You only got started!”
“You interrupted me!”
“I got excited.”
“You’re usually excited.”
“I mean… you’re not wrong. But that’s no excuse!”
“You’re right, it’s not.”
She blew a raspberry at me.
It was enough to get me to crack. I laughed and nodded. “Okay, okay. Let’s see. They usually take months to create, but after that, they can store a ton of locational data across a general region. There’s been some debate on what exactly a ‘region’ means, but that’s beside the point. Once you attune a Waystone to a region, it takes a lot of work to break that attunement. But figuring out the location of where a Waystone is attuned is pretty easy. You just have to focus on it and squeeze the thing lightly with your hooves.”
Before I could react—or regret my words—Minuette snatched the orb out of my magic and gave it a light squeeze.
“Dammit, Minuette!” I shouted as I reached—
The ‘Waystone’ lit up like a miniature sun. The white light was so bright I was sure ponies could have seen the glow from the portholes in the Blossom for a good twenty miles in every direction. I yelped and stumbled backward, falling right off my seat. Minuette squeaked somewhere behind the nova she’d just unleashed and I heard another thump. Then, there was a resounding crystalline gong that vibrated through the very hull of the ship. I felt my poor ship shudder at the abuse.
Finally, the light dimmed somewhat—though I could barely see from all the spots in my vision—and shifted into a soft, pleasant blue. A much higher-pitched crystalline chime sounded, then the light went out.
The ‘Waystone’ dropped to the carpeted deck between the two lounge chairs with a dull thud.
For a good minute or so, I did a few of my breathing exercises. Partially to control the massive spike of anxiety rushing through my body and partially to prevent myself from going over there and knocking some sense into Minuette with the damn Hearth’s Warming ornament!
But there was a third reason. A very, very important third reason.
Namely, I had trouble believing that anypony would put that much effort into a fake Waystone. Everything we had just experienced was the textbook definition of a Waystone responding that it was—in fact—in its attuned geographical region.
And now, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was one of the Waystones that could—
I shoved the thought out of my head. That was a myth and I wasn’t about to give Minuette even more things to freak out about. Instead, I refocused on the topic at hoof. Namely, Minuette’s antics.
“Minuette?” I asked, keeping my voice as calm and sweet as possible.
“Uh… yes, Moondancer?” Minuette said from somewhere beyond the large blobs dancing before my eyes.
“Do me a favor?” I staggered to my hooves and managed to find my chair. I flopped into it and closed my eyes.
“Uh… what’s that?” I heard Minuette moving around and yelping occasionally. I didn’t really feel bad for her.
“Don’t touch the Waystone again without warning me first, okay?” My voice cracked somewhere near the end as I rubbed my temples. “I’d really rather not deal with being struck blind again… or worse.”
“Uh… yeah. I can do that.” Minuette thumped something else. “Ow.”
I didn’t offer to help. Served her right.
We stayed in silence like that for a time. Minuette was smart enough not to speak and let me finish collecting my wits. I wasn’t sure how much time passed before Minuette spoke up again in a tiny, timid voice.
“Moony?”
“Hm?”
“This… this is a real Waystone, isn’t it?”
I sighed. “Probably.”
She squealed softly, but I didn’t want to let her get her hopes up.
“It doesn’t mean it has data or that the data is good, though,” I said. The afterimages were finally beginning to fade. I glanced out the window and was glad there was nothing suddenly in front of us other than rain. “It doesn’t mean we have a treasure map, Minuette.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Minuette wailed.
“She says while she’s sitting in the lounge of my own personal airship!” I snapped.
“Okay, fine,” Minuette huffed, waving her hooves in the air. “But that’s kind of the point! Why have something this amazing if you’re not going to do amazing things with it?”
“Minuette, I told you why I’m out—”
“Tell me how the rest of it works,” Minuette interrupted, levitating it up between us.
I snatched it out of her magic with my own magic. I did not trust her with that thing right now.
“If it’ll mean that much to you, fine!” I said, barely keeping my voice even. Thankfully, years of work with Mended Heart had actually done some good in that regard. “Once they’re in a geographical area and they’re activated, they’ll start to home in on the closest destination with gongs and chimes. Some variants even have magical arrows that will point in the right direction if you know the proper spell.”
Minuette eyed the orb, but I pulled it farther away from her. She shot me another look.
“You just said it was real and everything that thing just did seems to say that it’s in the right region!” Minuette huffed, crossing her hooves again. “Why does it need to be region-specific, anyway? That seems like… really complicated.”
“It has to do with the way the positional data interacts with leylines.” I shrugged. “Too much distance and the connections become unstable. It’s why these aren’t common.”
Minuette stared at me and blinked slowly.
“Nevermind,” I said with a sigh.
“Can you activate it?” Minuette asked, her eyes fixated on the globe. “Really, Moony? Can you turn this thing on?”
I blew a stray hair out of my face and forced myself to consider the idea. I did have my entire personal library with me in my room. While I didn’t know off the top of my head, I had a fair number of books about magical artificing. Considering how important Waystones had been to the Early Equestrians…
“I don’t know,” I admitted, my ears back.
Her face immediately fell into something between a pout and a frown.
“Really!” I protested, my ears snapping back up. “I really don’t know. I’d have to do some research!”
“You promise?”
“Yes, I promise!” I groaned. “I’m not trying to be difficult here, Minuette, but give me a break. I didn’t think that was a real Waystone until a minute or two ago. And I’m still not convinced anything will be on this thing. Or even if it is, it’s probably already been found. I mean, it’s not like we’re in the Unknown West here. There are small towns and villages scattered from here to Luna Bay.”
Minuette hugged herself tightly, staring down at the deck. “Look, can we… can we just try?”
Looking at her like that, I finally realized I wasn’t the only one trying to get away from something. Though what such a bubbly and cheerful mare like Minuette could be running from… I didn’t have the foggiest clue. And this didn’t seem like the time or place to ask.
I could offer her one thing, though. It might end up causing more harm than good, but if I did it in good faith, maybe it would help smooth some ruffled feathers. After all, I didn’t actually have a timetable. There wasn’t anyone eagerly awaiting my arrival back in Canterlot or in Vanhoover. I was free, more or less.
I swallowed and wondered for the first time if that was actually a good thing or not.
“Okay, Minuette. I’m willing to try. And if we get a location, I’ll even take us to it. Just… try not to get your—“
I was interrupted by a blue cannonball bowling me over and sending us both crashing back down to the deck. I nearly dropped the Waystone from my magic in surprise. I blinked a few times and looked down, only to see the other unicorn hugging me so tight I thought my horn might pop off my head.
“Minuette!” I gasped. “Need… need air!”
She squeezed tighter! Tighter! Somehow! I was pretty sure I heard breaking ribs.
Then she suddenly let go and popped off of me. However, she didn’t go far. She plopped down and focused that brilliant smile on me. Still lying on my side on the deck, I just stared up at those huge blue eyes, which seemed to dance in the low daytime lighting of the lounge.
I licked my lips and straightened my glasses. But before I could berate her, her ears twitched twice.
“Thank you, Moondancer. This… this is exactly what I need right now.”
Then, she bounced away. I didn’t see where. I didn’t care where. She couldn’t go far after all. It was a small airship, all things considered. Anyway, I had other things on my mind. Well, one specific thing on my mind really.
As I lay there, all I could think about at that moment was that smile and how it had been directed at me and me alone.
Eventually, I swallowed an odd lump in my throat, pushed myself to my hooves, and tried to straighten myself out. Leaving the Waystone in the safe, I decided to head to the wheelhouse again.
Maybe a change in perspective would get that smile out of my head.
Author's Notes:
The original concept of Moonie and Minnie's Waystone went through a few variants before it just became a "magical map/journal." At one point, I'd planned on actually having it shift them into a pocket dimension where all sorts of weirdness would go on. At least, I think it was weirdness. I didn't get super far into that concept, and I'm sure it was heavily influenced by Studio Élan's magnificent visual novel Heart of the Woods, another VN I highly recommend.
A shorter chapter than the others, but it involves two cute unicorns being cute, so it's worth it. Trust me, things are gonna get a lot more crazy next time!
If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!
The Pass
For most airship passengers, the North Unicorn Pass is little more than a break in the tail end of the Unicorn Range that passenger liners fly over at twenty thousand feet. While this part of the Range only reaches about seven thousand feet above sea level, I’d still wanted to try it. Minuette had been right. The actual maximum ceiling of the Wandering Blossom was about twelve-thousand feet. She couldn’t go anywhere near as high as a passenger liner, but she was still top-of-her-class and could easily go over the Unicorn Range.
The North Unicorn Pass is considered to be a proving ground for most small airship pilots in Western Equestrian. The pass itself was more than wide enough to navigate through safely, but hugging the contours of the gorge that made up the pass was quite the challenge. Ships twice the size of the Wandering Blossom had done it, so I should have no problem.
As I dropped us to around twenty-five hundred feet, I had to keep reminding myself of that. To my surprise, Minuette was at my side in the copilot’s seat. In the hours since the Waystone’s little surprise, she seemed to have a change of heart about the whole ‘risky piloting’ business, though she refused to say why. I guessed it had something to do with my deal with her. I still didn’t know why it was such a big thing and I doubted I would find out.
Anyway, I had more important things to worry about.
The first thing I’d done was a basic sounding spell, a weak pulse designed to sense any other ships in the area. Granted, it didn’t even go a quarter of a mile, but it was something. The last thing I wanted to do was find another ship attempting the run at the same time.
Granted, there could be someone trying from the other side, but I couldn’t do anything about that, so I was just going to cross my hooves and hope for the best there.
“You’re sure nopony else is around?” Minuette asked for the third time as she peered through the forward screen and the streaks of rain.
“Positive,” I replied as I felt the Blossom buck slightly beneath us. The weather had picked up and we now had a steady fall of water with the occasional downpour. That didn’t bother me. The winds were what bothered me. A little.
There were three traditions for those attempting the Northern Unicorn Pass run. First, stabilizing fins needed to be locked into a horizontal configuration. If either of those touched either side of the gorge, the run would be considered a failure. Second, the mainsail and the jib sail had to be used for propulsion until the three-quarter point. And third, no magic beyond what was built into the ship.
As I maintained our approach to the dark valley, the first flash of lightning crackled through the clouds overhead, lightning them up in patchwork patterns of gray and black.
“Moony…” Minuette whispered as she watched the light show. “You sure about this?”
In reality, nearly every run through the pass was done without anyone actually judging them. There were some ponies out there who lied through their teeth. There was no way to be sure anypony had completed the traditional run. The tradition hadn’t come out of that though. The tradition had come out of airship pilots wanting to prove to themselves they were capable, not to others.
Maybe I was doing this for the right reason. Maybe it was the wrong reason.
At that point, I didn’t care. I was still doing this.
As for Minuette… well, she’d insisted on hitching a ride with me. She couldn’t back out now.
Nothing but forest lay beneath us and the sun was beginning to fade. Two additional challenges were often added to the run: the light and the weather.
The ship rocked from side to side and Minuette let out a yelp. I ignored it and kept my hooves on the yoke.
“Uh, Moony?” Minuette said, tapping one of the panels in front of her. “According to this, the winds are gusting up to thirty miles an hour!”
“Blossom can handle it,” I growled as we reached the last mile to the entrance of the pass. It looked like a black slash through the granite of the mountains.
“Can you?” she asked, her voice quavering.
“Yes,” I snapped.
I growled under my breath and shoved the throttle to three-quarters for a good ten seconds to give us a nice good head start. After all, tradition said that engines weren’t to be used in the pass. Didn’t say anything about before the pass.
I reached up with my magic and yanked two levers above my head, locking the stabilizing fins into the horizontal position. This setting was almost never used, unless a ship had to do a sharp ascent or decline, but they gave us a little room for error. It wasn’t like I’d need it. I knew what I was doing.
Lightning streaked through the sky, grounding itself on one of the huge mountains to starboard and filling the entire world with light. The thunder rattled both of us in our seats. Minuette quickly adjusted her seatbelt to the five-point harness configuration I’d showed her earlier. I didn’t bother. We would be fine.
“Moony…” Minuette whimpered. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“That’s nice.” I flipped the forward lights on as the hidden sun began to fall below the horizon.
“Moony, come on! We can do this later!”
“Nope. Doing it now,” I grunted as a tailwind caught us and yanked us forward.
Then, before she could whine any more, we were in the North Unicorn Pass.
I had memorized the route to the North Unicorn Pass, but I quickly found that didn’t mean much when I could barely see beyond the prow of the Blossom. I swore and punched six buttons to my left, instantly overcharging the running lights of my airship. The canyon walls immediately burst with illumination as the forward lights attached to the bowsprit drilled through the rain and the dark. Minuette shrieked when the first turn came up, but I had enough warning to use the wind funneling through the pass to jibe port. I eyed the starboard fin and smiled when we cleared with plenty of room to spare.
“Why is this so important to you?” she cried as she held onto her seat, staring into the darkness.
“It’s a challenge!” I shouted. The roar of the wind was starting to get loud even through the slatted curtains forward and aft. “I like them!”
“Since when?” Minuette shot back as I jibed starboard to miss another cliff wall, swinging us around and making sure to keep the mainsail fully powered. She screamed as the port fin came within a hundred feet of the wall.
“Since a few years ago!” I shouted back.
She said something else, but I mentally tuned her out, focusing all my attention on the ship. In truth, I hadn’t expected to do this during a thunderstorm or at night. We’d hit a headwind that had delayed us by three hours and this storm hadn’t been on the schedule for the area. Then again, since there were no major cities in the region, pegasi tended to let the weather run a little wild. For all I knew, this was one of the wild storms the ATC back at the Vanhoover Skydocks had warned me about.
Maybe I should have turned back and done this another day. But trying to turn around with this much wind behind us would guarantee a quick trip into a cliff wall. Even trying to climb out of this would be risky, as the winds would get more unpredictable the closer we got to the top of the pass. In truth, it didn’t matter. We were already in it and I was going to see us through.
I had to perform two more last-second jibes, the Blossom shaking and rattling around me. It became almost like riding a series of white water rapids, desperately trying to avoid the big rocks all while trying to stay off the banks of the raging river. Only in this case, it was in three-dimensions.
The analogy became even more apt as I was forced to slalom through a narrow switchback. Minuette screamed as wall after wall spun by us. At this point, I had given up trying to control our speed and focused on just not hitting the walls of the pass. As we came out of the last one, it sent us directly toward another gray cliff wall. I swore and yanked back hard on the yoke. I saw the mainsail and the jib sail snap into the proper position, but I could already see it wasn’t going to be enough. The wind behind us was pushing us toward the wall too fast.
So I did something that most pilots would have called insane.
I dropped the starboard stabilizing fin back to its vertical position and extended it as far as it could go.
Instantly, the wind slammed into the new plane on the airship and the Blossom began to tilt hard to starboard. I could see from the way the rain moved that the canyon walls provided a sort of narrow airstream. All I needed to do was get my sails in that stream and we would skim the edge and have room to right ourselves.
Minuette was doing something. Again, I was only barely aware of her.
Within thirty seconds of me releasing the fin, we were completely perpendicular to the ground. I grunted and wished I’d put on my five-point harness. I ignored gravity’s call on my body and collapsed the mainsail, letting the jib take the brunt of the winds as we slid closer and closer to the wall of granite.
“Moony!” Minuette shrieked. “Do something!”
“I’m doing it!” I bellowed back at her.
The airship jerked as we hit the airstream. I yanked down on the mainsail’s lever and it snapped open, sucking up all of that thrusting air and sending us rocketing forward. I yanked the starboard fin back into the horizontal position moments before as I heard a faint scraping noise. I didn’t let myself think about it. One thing at a time, Moondancer. One thing at a time.
I had made one final error though. The way the wind had been pushing at us didn’t suddenly stop the moment we hit the airstream. Instead of leveling out, the entire airship capsized. My seatbelt barely kept me in while various things in the wheelhouse crashed to the ceiling. I grunted and tweaked the sails before swearing and finally kicking in the rudder assembly. I hadn’t wanted to use it. It was a major mark of honor for those who made the pass if they could do it without the rudder, but I didn’t have a choice. I unlocked it from its normal tilt and allowed it to control both pitch and yaw as it slammed ‘up’ into position beneath the turbines under the stern of the Blossom.
It was enough.
With my expert hooves at the yoke and rudder, I managed to spin the entire airship the rest of the way, righting her just in time to jibe the next twist of the pass. I mentally did a comparison of the switchback we’d just gone through and the map in my head.
“Almost there, one last turn…”
Minuette said nothing, but I couldn’t spare the time to even glance in her direction. The final wall loomed up in front of us, a massive thing of gray granite and green lichen.
I jibed for what should be the last time.
Then, a bolt of lightning crashed into the mountains directly above us. Minuette screamed. I swore and my hooves jerked on the yoke. Thunder—a hundred times worse because of the narrow space of the pass—pounded my flattened ears. I had no doubt that if the forward-screen in front of us had been glass, it would have shattered. A few rocks suddenly came tumbling down, nothing bigger than a pony, but even rocks that size could do horrible damage to an airship the size of the Blossom. I saw one clang off the railing on the forward port-quarter. I swore again when I realized my starboard fin was scraping against the cliffside.
“Dammit!” I roared and yanked the ship back from the wall. “So bucking close!”
And then, we were through and into the rolling foothills north of the Unicorn Range. Despite that, I couldn’t see a thing before us, except…
I frowned and squinted into the darkness. Out there in the storm, was a small dot of light, going in the same general direction as we were. Without thinking about it, I cut our running lights to low. I didn’t know why. Maybe I was just paranoid from that narrow brush with… well, probably not death, but at least inconvenience.
Still, something about that light made me uneasy. I wondered what it was. Within a minute or so, the light ascended into the cloud layer and vanished from sight. I forced it out of my mind, returned the stabilizing fins to their correct position—though I would have to land tomorrow and inspect them—and tried not to focus on how I’d just royally screwed up.
About how I’d failed. Again.
I rubbed my eyes with my hooves and turned to my copilot. “Sorry for the rough—”
The seat was empty.
I froze for a second, my head spinning about. For a second, I was worried she had somehow gone overboard during my maneuvers, but as my eyes swept the deck, I saw Minuette down below, looking at me with an unreadable expression. She just stood in the rain, like it wasn’t freezing out there.
Then she shook her head and headed to the lower deck.
I blinked a few times, not sure what to make of her reaction. Yeah, that hadn’t gone according to plan, but we were fine. Maybe a little bumped and bruised, but fine. Why was she being so odd?
And what happened to the Minuette I remembered all those years ago? Back when nothing could take away that smile?
Then I had to remind myself of what I’d seen today. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to talk about their past. It wasn’t like I’d told her everything. I didn’t intend to tell her everything. It wasn’t any of her business what happened between me and—
I stopped.
No, but maybe being a good friend would count. We had both fought in the Battle of Unity. We’d been on the front lines with everypony—no, everycreature else. And then… things had happened. Mistakes had been made. Not between us. Me… and others.
After that, I’d become a little obsessed with this idea.
Maybe this was her way of bridging that gap. And maybe this is her reaching out to me and trying to get to know me again? No one had been the same after the Battle of Unity. For the most part, that was a good thing.
And what had I just done?
To her eyes, I had probably nearly killed us both.
I facehoofed and took the time to neaten up the wheelhouse. I didn’t feel up to running the ship on autopilot tonight. So, I gently dropped the ship as I searched for a clearing in the forest below where I might be able to land the Blossom. It took me a good ten minutes or so, but I finally found a series of wet hills with only a few scattered shrubs.
Turning the crystal core into low-power mode, I brought the ship to a hovering stop on the leeward side of a larger hill. I dropped anchor—I didn’t want to actually put the ship on the ground with that sound of the hull being scraped still fresh in my mind. Then, I retracted the fins, turned off the main running lights, and engaged the low-level anchorage lights.
I took my time to secure the rest of the wheelhouse, but mostly because I didn’t really want to face Minuette right now. I had a bad feeling about this. Anything that could get Minuette upset was a pretty big deal. I probably wasted a good twenty minutes in the wheelhouse before I finally left, locking both doors with my magic. The rain had stopped and the sky was just a series of broken clouds.
I didn’t even notice the cold as I stepped down the slick stairwell and made my way to the lower hatch. I paused briefly before going through though, taking a deep breath of the alpine air. I may have been raised in a mountain city for my whole life, but this was a different kind of air. A wilder air, filled with pine trees, sagebrush, and the sound of nothing pony-made aside from the Blossom’s quiet crystal core. All sorts of animals and critters made noises out here, just living their lives and ignoring everything else.
Sounded nice.
However, despite the serenity of the moment, I didn’t look up at the stars.
Another twist of magic and I was inside my ship. After locking the door, I slipped through the engineering section. There were a couple places where it looked like sparks had flown, but nothing overtly damaged from my run through the pass. I smiled briefly to myself, until I remembered what lay beyond the next hatchway.
I swallowed and wondered what Minuette had really expected out of this trip.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
Author's Notes:
This was an incredibly challenging chapter to write. I had to learn a ton about how to navigate sailing ships to pull this off. In case you're wondering, the term "jibe" is used when navigating primarily by sail, "to shift suddenly and forcibly from one side to the other —used of a fore-and-aft sail or its boom." While it's a bit of a stretch to use it like this, hopefully, it gets the point across. After all, I didn't want to come up with a whole new set of terminology just to describe airship mechanics!
No matter, I hope you enjoyed seeing just what the Blossom can do! I'm sure it won't matter though. It's not like pirates are a thing in Equestria or anything.
The real question is why Moonie would do something this risky. Yes, she said she had plenty of training over the last couple of years (and I mean training beyond just reading, she's actually piloted airships now), but this seemed a little crazy. And Minnie doesn't seem like the biggest fan of what she just pulled.
What do you think she'll find on the other side of that door?
If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!
